PARTIES: Go with these three

Here’s an idea whose time has come.

First, abolish all political parties. Then, replace them with three new parties: the Conservatives, the Liberals, and the Moderates.

The Conservatives will decide the conservative position on issues, and the Liberals will decide the liberal. The Moderates will take whatever is left over.

Each politician must run for office as a member of one of the three parties. Each party will determine if the politician is a “true member” of that party and, if not, will unceremoniously boot him out, forcing him to find another party that will admit him, or slink away in disgrace.

This idea will accomplish a few things:

1) the name of each party will truly reflect the ideology of that party; no more assuming that Democrats are for “democracy” or Republicans are for a “republic.” Every citizen will know where a politician stands on an issue simply by his party affiliation.

2) The political demography of the country will more accurately resemble a Bell curve, with Liberals on the left (smaller) end, Conservatives on the right (much smaller) end; and the Moderates will populate the much larger center of the curve.

3) I suspect that almost all politicians will join the Moderate party when they realize how pathetically small the ends of the curve are that the other two parties represent.

4) We will all live a much simpler, quieter, more realistic political lives. That’s the theory, anyway.

JOE LYKINS

Coeur d’Alene